----- Original Message ----- From: "Jaggi Singh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Bob Olsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > The Toronto Star > > September 2, 2000 > > View from Quebec > > A feeding frenzy of alarm > > Plans for a summit in Quebec city next spring are raising fears that much > of the old city will be turned into an armed camp > > By Robert McKenzie Toronto Star Quebec City Bureau > > QUEBEC CITY - AS THE co-owner of a restaurant in Old Quebec that's > frequented by a lot of politicians and journalists, Philippe Dehaye has > plenty of reasons to feel good about the Summit of the Americas to be held > just up the street next April. > > Thirty-four heads of state and government, including the new president of > the United States; 9,000 participants, among them 2,000 journalists: ``You > think of the images of Quebec being transmitted around the planet, the > publicity, the contacts for the future, all the extra business for hotels, > boutiques, restaurants,'' Dehaye says. > > But Dehaye, the younger of the father-son team that runs the Les Fr�res de > la C�te restaurant, has a touch of anxiety in his voice as he enumerates > the advantages of the coming mega-event. ``We don't have much information > so far, but everything in the news seems to be negative,'' he says, as he > supervises operations from behind the bar during a busy lunch hour this > week. > > He feels no particular alarm at the announced presence of thousands of > demonstrators who, after Vancouver, Washington, Seattle and Windsor, will > be heading for Quebec city to shout their rage at globalization and > capitalism. ``Demonstrators eat in restaurants, too,'' he remarks. > > ``But now there's all this talk of having local residents wear identity > cards and barricading whole sectors of the city for anyone who doesn't > have accreditation. Sure, you need security, but couldn't that provoke > them even more?'' > > For the past 10 days, the local media have been on a feeding frenzy of > alarming stories about what's going to happen at the summit. > > ``Quebec: A Barricaded City,'' shouted the daily Le Soleil. ``All the > residents, workers and merchants in the sector between the Ch�teau > Frontenac and the Loews Le Concorde (about 35,000 people in an area one > kilometre in diameter) will need an accreditation card to enter their own > home or place of work during the Summit of the Americas, April 20, 21, 22 > and 23.'' > > Other stories have mentioned four-metre-high crowd barriers, checks on > possible criminal records or past subversive activities by residents or > workers in the area and checks inside buildings on streets to be used by > the dignitaries. > > Curiously, one trigger of the media panic-fest has been a report titled > Anti-Globalization - A Spreading Phenomenon, released on the Internet by > the requirements, analysis and production branch of the Canadian Security > Intelligence Service (CSIS). > > The 12-page report - a capsule summary, mostly from already published > media sources, of the rise of anti-globalization protest movements and > anarchist groups in recent years - concludes with this warning: ``. . . it > has been established that anti-globalists are organizing against a number > of international meetings in Canada, including the April, 2001, Summit of > the Americas in Quebec city. Given the virulent anti-globalization > rhetoric directed against the Organization of American States (OAS), the > threat of summit-associated violence in Quebec city cannot be ruled out.'' > > For anyone interested, notably newspaper people looking for stories on the > summit, the CSIS report serves as a kind of Yellow Pages guide to many of > the dozens of groups, more often ``groupuscules,'' that have been sounding > off on the Internet against globalization. > > ``The Internet has had a profound impact - in part by enabling organizers > to quickly and easily arrange demonstrations and protests,'' the CSIS > report says, naming some alleged practitioners of the art: Black Bloc, > Third Position, Anarchist News Service, Black Army Faction, Anarchist > Action Collective, the Ruckus Society, Direct Action Network, Alliance for > Global Justice, Global Action, and Co-Motion Action. > > Tapping through the Internet also throws up several reputedly home-grown > Quebec groups promising action at the summit: > > Salami, the movement that threw a spanner in the works at the May, 1998, > conference on globalization in Montreal. It promises that, at Quebec, ``we > will not be the sausage meat of the globalizers of injustice. > > L'Ombre noire (the black shadow) proclaims: ``We've started to organize to > make sure the summit is effectively short-circuited. We want to go beyond > symbolic protest or reformism to make sure the Summit of the Americas is > shut down.'' > > So far, the official Summit of the Americas' press office and the RCMP > officer who speaks for the joint Canadian security forces at the summit - > Quebec city police, suburban Sainte-Foy police, the provincial S�ret� du > Qu�bec and the Mounties - have refused to release precise details of > security arrangements such as the reported mass-accreditation plan. > > What is known is that they have successfully squelched plans for > organizers of a protest ``Counter-Summit'' to rent the Palais Montcalm > theatre, a stone's thrown from the Quebec Convention Centre where the > official summit is being held. > > RCMP Constable Julie Brongel, the designated police spokesperson for the > summit, says a ``constructive dialogue'' will be established with the > various protest groups, which are still believed to be organizing a > counter-summit. ``These preventive meetings will help make the > demonstrators aware of what the police expect of them,'' she wrote in a > prepared statement. > > But reporters here in past days have been trying to track down rumours > that both sides - police and protest groups - have already set up separate > training camps at secret locations in the Quebec-city area. > > With this lack of hard information and cat-and-mouse activity, there are > almost as many opinions on how the summit will go as there are Quebecers > who express themselves on the subject. Many, like Dehaye, hope for the > best but fear the worst. > > Jean Barr�, spokesperson for a group of businesspeople within the old > walled city, sees ``the syndrome of 1984'' hanging over the summit - a > reference to the Tall Ships celebration of 1984, when media predictions of > problems at the event proved to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. > > Fran�ois Picard, an independent city councillor, doubts training sessions > can cure the Quebec city police department's well-established reputation - > which started with the notorious Truncheon Saturday during the Queen's > visit in 1964 - for ham-fisted crowd-control techniques. ``I expect to see > the worst.'' > > A recurring concern is that the pride in Quebec city's beauty and history > referred to by Prime Minister Jean Chr�tien last year when he announced > the choice of the city for the summit will be tainted by the kind of riots > shown around the world at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle > last year. > > And, since nothing in Canada would be complete without a touch of > federal-provincial conflict, the Quebec government is obliging by hosting > a parallel international event of its own. The Parliamentary Conference of > the Americas, an association of national and state-level legislators from > North, South and Central America and the Caribbean, which Quebec helped to > found three years ago, will hold an executive meeting at the Quebec > National Assembly in the days leading up to the summit. > > Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, speaker of the Quebec assembly and first > president of the organization, says the executive intends to seek a > meeting with the 34 heads of state and government during the summit. > > While supporting the construction of a free-trade zone of the Americas, > the group - from which Canada has withdrawn - intends to urge the heads of > state to ``act more vigorously'' to combat poverty and inadequate health > care, education and social services in many of their countries, > Charbonneau says. > > ............................................. > Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ............................................. > > > > > > > ---------------------------- ftaa-l ----------------------------- > resisting the FTAA and capitalist globalization > mobilizing for Quebec City, April 2001 > creating alternatives > ----- > to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > with the following text only: unsubscribe > ---------------------------- ftaa-l -----------------------------
